MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

10/26 Trammell to join D-backs

Cubs bench coach Alan Trammell was expected to join Kirk Gibson’s staff on the Diamondbacks in a similar capacity. Gibson also was adding former Cubs manager Don Baylor as hitting coach. Trammell, 52, would replace Bo Porter, who was dismissed at the end of this season. Gibson was Trammell’s bench coach in Detroit when he managed the Tigers from 2003-05. Trammell has been the Cubs’ bench coach since 2007 when Lou Piniella took over.

The Cubs have yet to announce manager Mike Quade’s staff. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild did exercise his option to return and hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo was expected back after signing a three-year deal in October 2009.

Stranger things have happened (like keeping Hendry on the payroll) but I don’t think it would be Quade’s ideal situation to have Sandberg “breathing down his neck”. But it the offer would allow Rindrey to save face and in time move Quade into the GM role and put Sandberg in as manager in two years when Hendry is just a memory…

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